


One Last Night

by notoverjoyed



Series: Not Yet a Hero [3]
Category: Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Fireworks, Gen, Sneaking Out, talk of blowing things up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:02:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5800036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notoverjoyed/pseuds/notoverjoyed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set between chapters 3 and 4 of The First Day of the Rest of Your Life</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Last Night

Tommy storms out of his mother's apartment with no clear idea of where he's going. He stomps around looking for something to do until it’s fully dark, but nothing seems to be happening. It’s Monday night so no one from school is hosting any parties, and he’s way to antsy to catch a movie. He’s so bored just walking around that he’s toys with the idea of going home and dealing with his mother after all. It would give him something to do anyway.

But as begins to consider just turning around, he spots dim sparks in sky. They look like bottle rockets. Now that Tommy notices them he can almost hear the thin whine of them being launched into the air. Then some larger, brighter sparks spray up, and he's sure. Someone must be shooting them off from somewhere close, maybe one the parks.

With renewed enthusiasm, he starts toward where the rockets seem to be coming from. All he needs to do is follow the spray of colored lights coming up every few minutes.

A few minutes more and he arrives at a local park. This one's made up mostly of a broad field and a couple sports courts with cracked concrete. There's a group of cars pulled up onto the grass, and a few people standing around near the basketball court. Tommy sees a guy he knows vaguely from school, from gym class he thinks. He shouts a greeting, and the guy recognizes him.

“Tommy, right?”

“Yeah. What’s going on here?”

“Just shooting off some fireworks, this girl I know got some from out of state over christmas break.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, just a regular Monday night. What are you up to?”

“Just trying to stay out of the house. Trying to avoid another lecture from the parents. Well, parent.”

“They care?”

“About me getting detention. Means they have to come pick me up, since they have that stupid rule about not letting you leave detention without a guardian.”

“They’ll have to give that up soon, else have a few kids spend the night”

Just then a truck pulls up to the parking lot and bumps over the low curb onto the grass. Two older teenage boys get out and one shouts, “This where the party at?”

Another boy shouts back, “Dude, there’s only like, six of us. It’s not much of a party”

The first guy reaches into the bed of the truck and pulls out a case of beer. “Is now” A couple of the others let out whoops and head towards the truck. Ethan wanders that way too, and Tommy follows.

“Hey Ethan, hand over a couple of those.”

“Sure,” the boy says as he grabs a couple from the box, but pauses before giving Ethan them. “I need some compensation first though” He holds out his free hand and cocks his head expectantly.

“I’ve got about 37 cents on me right now, you’re gonna have to run me some credit.”

“Do I look like a fucking bank to you?”

Tommy rolls his eyes and pulls out a few bucks from his pocket. “Here,” he says, and stuff the bills in the guy’s empty hand while plucking the bottles from the other. They guy is startled to see the drinks gone, but looks down at the money in his hand and nods.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” he says as Tommy and Ethan begin to walk away.

“Asshole,” he mutters when they’re out of easy hearing distance. Then “Thanks,” as they crack open their beers. Tommy takes a sip then grimaces.

“Warm.” he groans, and Ethan huffs.

“Figures,” he says.

They meander over towards the basketball court, where the fireworks are being set off.  ‘At least they’re not stupid enough to light them in the grass,’ Tommy thinks. It hasn’t rained for a few weeks; the grass rustles drily as it’s crushed under his feet.

Just off the concrete of the court, there’s a guy squatting and a girl standing. They're both talking and gesturing toward the pile of rockets at their feet.

“We should do the big one now,” insists the guy. Tommy thinks his name is Ben.

“We do the air bomb now, the cops will come,” the girl replies. It doesn’t sound like first time she’s say this.

Ben studies the rocket in his hand, the biggest one of the pile. He doesn’t look up as he argues, “C’mon Gina, the cops won’t come for fireworks, they’ve got way better places to be.”

Gina rolls her eyes and sighs. “One, fireworks are super illegal in this state, so we're pushing our luck as it is" she says.

"And two, Have you even heard an air bomb go off before? It's so loud the police will have to come check it out.”

At this point, Ethan interrupts, “I’d listen to her Ben, she worked at one of those tents selling fireworks last summer.”

"My uncle's business. In New Hampshire, where these things are actually legal to sell," she adds.

“But if we don’t set the big one off, what’s the point of even coming out here?” Ben asks, a petulant expression on his face as he puts down the rocket and stands up.

“Why don’t you set it off last?” Ethan suggests. “You set it off, then we all get the hell out of here.”

Ben considers this for a moment with pursed lips, then slowly nods. “Alright,” he agrees, still nodding. Gina rolls her eyes and humphs.  “I’ll just go send up the little ones then.” He grabs a couple off the smaller rockets and heads towards the middle of the basketball court.

“You do that,’ she calls back to him, then turns the others.

“Who’s your friend?” she says to Ethan, nodding toward Tommy.

“Mr. Thomas Shepherd,” Ethan says with a dramatic flourish. He looks expectantly at Gina.

“Who are you trying to impress?” Tommy says with a snort of laughter.  He’s impressed Tommy, knowing his last name. Tommy never learned Ethan’s last name.

Ethan shoots him a glare, but Gina chuckles. “Oh I’m impressed,” she says. “Promise. And it’s nice to meet you Thomas.”

“It’s Tommy-,” he corrects her, but is drowned out by a sudden sharp crack. One of the smaller fireworks rockets into the sky in a spray of sparks. Ben and a few other guys cheer, and a second rocket follows close behind.

“So the plan’s to work through all the quiet ones, then the air bomb?” Tommy asks, his eyes following the lights' paths through the air.

“Then we run,” Ben adds, and the rockets explode

“You can run, I’m driving out of here, let you be the one to get caught” Gina says.

Ethan feigns wounded shock. “Hey, I’m fast, but that’s just cruel to leave me behind with Tommy. He runs circles around me in gym class, the showoff.”

“I don’t need to show off to run circles around you,” Tommy replied. “You’re just slow.”

He misses Ethan’s reply over the noise of several more rockets set off in succession. The snarky look on his face makes the intent of the retort obvious.

As the each of the rockets explodes in a cacophony of sparks, Ben comes back over towards the small group.

“That’s the last of the small ones,” he calls, and he can’t keep the enthusiasm off his face.

“Then let’s get ready to clear out,” Gina says.

“Then the big one?” Ben asks hopefully.

“Then the big one.” Gina says with an indulgent smile.

Ben returns the smile with more excitement, then grabs the last rocket and jogs toward the center of the court. Gina motions at Tommy and Ethan to get back, so they move twenty or so feet away from the court. Gina goes in the opposite direction and disappears among the cars.

Ben’s fiddling with the fuse at the base of the rocket. The other guys rush to grab stuff they’d left lying around while watching the smaller fireworks go up.

There’s an expectant silence as everyone waits for the last firework. Finally, Ben lets out a whoop and runs toward the groups of cars as the rocket shoots into the sky. Tommy follows the trail of sparks as it rises higher and higher. The rocket is just slowing down when the stream of sparks widens into an explosion. They seem to move in slow motion, the colored lights spreading leisurely in a great green spray. The boom comes slowly as well, sounding deep in Tommy’s chest and echoing in his ears.

It takes a few moments for the sound to fade enough to hear softer noises. But soon enough he can hear car doors slam as people rush to get away before the noise draws unwanted attention. Gina calls out a goodbye to Ethan as he and Tommy make a hasty retreat towards the park exit.

They run and stumble their way through the darkness until they reach the road, then slow down to a walk.

“Whoa, that was huge!” Tommy says. Ethan nods at him, too out of breath to speak.

A few moment of walking allows Ethan to catch his breath. He then says, “Imagine if you set that off somewhere during the day. You’d freak everyone out, they’d think it was a bomb or something”

“Like where?” Tommy asks.

“Someplace really public, crowded, freak a lot of people out”

“Like the school maybe even get us out of class.”

“Sure, great idea. Outside the cafeteria, during lunch. I’d make everyone jump at least.”

“Or in the science lab, by the storage cabinet with all that flammable stuff,” Tommy suggests.

“Dude, blow the whole room up! No chem lab for weeks,” Ethan exclaims.

“It’d be hard to get in there to light it though. Alone at least. And you’d want to be alone, otherwise someone might get hurt.”

“True, but then again, it’s not like either of us can pull it off, no more fireworks.”

Tommy smirks and says, “Yeah, unless you get Gina to call you.”

Ethan shoves his arm and is about to reply when sirens sound faintly in the distance. The two boys waste no more time, giving hasty goodbyes and parting at the next intersection. Some of his restless energy finally spent, Tommy decides to head home. It’s pretty late after all, so his mother will probably be asleep.


End file.
